Also available on DS You ever have a game with which you say “Wow, that game sounds awesome. Money’s tight, though, so I’m going to wait for a sale,” and then you wait too long and the game is suddenly $150? If you’re a JRPG fan and said no, you’re either rich enough to buy everything at launch or a liar. Well, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology is that game for me. I’m a physical purist, but given how ungodly expensive it is on the second-hand market, I had to bite the digital bullet when Atlus ran a 3DS sale last Spring. This was a slow burn game for me, but I finally finished it, and while I absolutely loved the game, there are definitely a few aspects that weren’t my cup of tea. The game feels, to a certain extent, like Atlus’s take on Chrono Trigger. You play primarily as Stocke, a former soldier and current intelligence agent for the city-state of Allistel in its long war against the kingdom of Granorg. For reasons unknown, though, the intelligence director, Heiss, gives you a blank book called the White Chronicle when sending you out on a mission, saying only that it’s a good luck charm of sorts. Next thing you know, you’re on a quest hopping through space and time to try to save the world from certain destruction at the hands of global desertification. Along the way, you meet allies from Allistel, other human nations, non-human nations, and even Granorg itself to help you on your quest to save the world and unravel the secrets of the long-dead Empire. As this is a remake of a DS game - even if an enhanced one - the game only displays in 2D. No matter what your slider is set on, there’s no 3D effect at all. Bummer. It does look really good, though, with excellent character designs and sprites. There was a pretty big change to the character art between the DS original and 3DS remake, and while the fans seem fairly divided, I definitely think the 3DS art looks significantly better. There’s also added content to the 3DS version, so that’s the version to play if both are an option. The characters and their interactions were the highlight of the game for me, so the character design changes were a big factor in my decision to play on 3DS rather than DS. The added content was what pushed me over the edge to 3DS. The story and characters were great, but I have to admit that the time hopping got tiresome for me. It wasn’t the concept of time travel that bothered me but having to figure out exactly when to go and what to do there to progress the story and which universe - the “Standard History” or “Alternate History” - I needed to be in. That’s definitely a “me” thing, not a genuine complaint with the game, but it’s definitely not quite as linear as I generally like JRPGs to be. Still, though, the story and characters and world lore was more than enough motivation for me to get over myself and power through those parts. Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology is definitely a game that didn’t get as much attention as it deserved, and I’d love to see it get a 3D remake or sequel on Switch. It is, unfortunately, extremely expensive physically, so I’d highly recommend you download it on your 3DS sometime over the next six months or so while you’ve got the chance (unless you’re reading this after March 2023 in which case ya-harr, me matey). It may not have been exactly what I usually look for in a JRPG, but that story was a caliber that only comes a few times a generation, so if you’ve slept on this so far, go ahead and wake up. My Rating - A |
I'm a teacher.And I like to play video games. I like to collect video games. I like to talk about video games, and I like to write about video games. During the day, I teach high school history; during the night, I spend my spare time gaming. Then I write about it. Archives
May 2024
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